Numerous examples of inflatable boats are known in the art. Many of these inflatable boats are formed, for safety reasons, from at least two separate inflatable chambers which typically form the side of the boat.
An example of a collapsible inflatable boat is shown in Design Pat. No. 151,467. In this patent, the boat is formed from three separate inflatable chambers each of which has its own valve member for inflating and deflating the chambers. In such a boat, it is necessary to inflate and/or deflate each chamber separately. This is a tedious process which requires a great deal of time and effort since the chamber must be inflated, the pressure checked, further inflation and/or deflation carried out and the process must be repeated in order to arrive at the appropriate pressure.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,178,911 to Hemphill et al. disclose another inflatable boat having a plurality of inflatable compartments. These compartments are connected with one another by virtue of intercommunicating valves which can be opened to connect all of the compartments or closed, once inflated, to isolate each compartment from the others. Hence, if one of the chambers gets punctured during use, only that particular chamber deflates. Such inflatable boats are typically inflated by opening all of the intercommunicating valves and inflating all of the compartments simultaneously via one valve. However, the disadvantage of this method is that the operator needs to remember to open the valves before inflating and close them afterwards. Otherwise, in case a chamber gets punctured, the whole boat would deflate and sink. Moreover, it takes time to open the valves and then close them, which is not a luxury one can afford when the boat is used during urgent rescue missions. Furthermore, the crew or the person being rescued may easily catch his clothes or limbs on the exposed valves.
DE Pat. No. 881 164 to Meyer discloses an inflatable raft using check valves placed inside the tubes. The raft described in this patent uses two inflation valves rather than just one, which is an inconvenient when a rescue crew needs to inflate the raft in a hurry. Moreover, this raft has no inflatable deck and no openings at water level, therefore not being well adapted for rescue operations where imperiled persons need to be rescued from water level and rescuers need to stand up on the deck.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,888,111 to Walker discloses an inflatable raft adapted for rescue. This raft has two U-shaped inflatable chambers and an inflatable deck. Although adapted for the rescue of imperiled persons, this raft may not be easily and rapidly inflated because it requires that the two chambers plus the deck be inflated separately. This forces the operator to connect its source of compressed air at all three different places, losing precious time in the manipulation.
Accordingly, there is need in the art for an inflatable boat adapted for rescue operations that can be rapidly inflated in case of emergency through the minimum of inflation valves, and which can remain safely operable through the use of many chambers, even when suffering from punctures in demanding environments.